We are very concerned that Sentsov went on a hunger strike – Dzhemilev

The leader of the Crimean Tatar people stressed that Oleg Sentsov is of special importance for Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars

KYIV (QHA) -

The leader of the Crimean Tatar people, the Presidential Commissioner of Ukraine for Crimean Tatar people Mustafa Dzhemilev said that such people as the Ukrainian political prisoner Oleg Sentsov are needed alive. He made a corresponding statement at the University of Toronto at an event dedicated to the situation with repression of the Crimean Tatars and violation of human rights in the occupied peninsula.

"We are very much concerned that he went on a hunger strike ... You know, in 1986 Anatoly Marchenko declared the starvation like this, but he died. This, of course, strongly influenced the further release of political prisoners, but he is no longer alive. But I'd really like such people as Sentsov to live. We need then more alive than dead," he said.

Dzhemilev stressed that Sentsov is of particular importance for Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars.

“Oleg Sentsov is one of those courageous people in the Crimea, who with dignity sustained all these arrests, all humiliations, received an incredibly long term for absolutely false accusation. Moreover, this lie was repeated and (Russian President) Putin, said that he allegedly had some kind of terrorist actions (planned). In fact, it was about the demolition of the monument to Lenin, and not about plotting some murders or terror.”

QHA reported that Sentsov started the hunger strike on May 14, demanding that the Russian authorities release 64 Ukrainian political prisoners.

Earlier Sentsov's sister Natalia Kaplan said that the Ukrainian filmmaker does not play for the public, and therefore achieving his release without "information" in the media is much more difficult. She noted that the release of her brother would require the maximum political "pressure" not only of Ukraine, but of the entire international community.

Oleg Sentsov was detained by Russian invaders in the Crimea for an active patriotic position and accused of terrorism.